Six Kinds of Dice Modifiers

My role-playing game Nine Powers is doing great.

I have transitioned it from a diceless game (best for when my kids were very young, for my wife and I to play while on a walk with a stroller) to a game that used dice very carefully to help the storytelling.

Here is a repost from something I wrote in Reddit about the many different ways RPG game mechanics can modify a die roll.

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Does thinking about the six very different kinds of modifiers help your game design?

1. Change the number of dice rolled

This can allow a character to do something previously impossible, and is thus appropriate for magical or high-tech items. Perhaps using the Wilderness skill to follow a monster's trail required successes on 4 dice. A character that normally rolled 3 dice could not normally succeed, but with an enchanted magnifying glass that grants extra dice the task becomes possible.

2. Change the threshold for success

Tasks still need the same number of successes, but more or less dice will count as successful. This makes tasks easier or harder, and is thus appropriate for high-quality equipment and circumstantial bonuses. A historian will (on average) find out better information with access to the royal library than in a small village.

Also perhaps appropriate for defensive actions do in combat making it harder for your opponent to hit you.

3. Leveraging successes

If the die roll is successful, then additional successes are added (a fixed amount from a bonus, or each successful die counts as two, etc.) Now the effect of success is much more dramatic, which can appropriate for giant foes, poisoned blades, etc.

Also perhaps appropriate for armor, if armor reduces the number of successes that "count" as successful (plate armor mitigates slicing damage), or when armor does nothing to normal successes but negates leveraged successes (maybe brigandine does not mitigate much blunt damage normally, but does prevent blunt damage for getting bonus successes).

4. Rerolling dice

For most dice mechanics, a second chance is less impactful than the above three types of modifiers. Appropriate having both hands free when grappling in combat, blocking with a shield instead of a weapon, and some benefits from a character's background (before adventuring I was a locksmith, but learned nothing special about dungeon traps).

5. Setting some dice to their minimum or maximum value

Rare but sometimes appropriate. Perhaps a character who is already the town hero now gets 1 die set to its maximum value when haggling for prices.

6. Using other size dice

For example, instead of six-sided die, this roll uses four-sided or eight-sided. Perhaps appropriate to differentiate swords from daggers, the benefit of a two-handed grip, etc.